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VARIATION IN VANESSA URTICA, L.: SEASONAL 
(CLIMATICAL) AND LOCAL VARIATION IN VJ. 
CHIC A AND? INS VCTOO Es BY “WHICH THE 
TWO SPECIES SHOW A TENDENCY TO MEET 
IN FACIKS. 
By T. Reuss. 
Variation in Vanessa urtice, L. 
Tue above figures represent the marginal markings on the 
hind wings of nine varieties—figs. 1-9—of V. urtice, L., which 
I reared this season from wild Hertfordshire larve. Fig. 10 is 
the hind wing of an aberration I bred on the 14th of August, 
1906, from wild Continental larve, and figured as ab. woproto- 
formis in the Ent. Ree. pl. vii. fig. 5, last April, without at the 
time describing the specimen. 
All the marginal markings depicted are those of female 
imagines, with two exceptions—figs. 1 and 9. The markings of 
each specimen in figs. 1-7 were otherwise, as in typical urtice, 
and the ground colour exhibited its usual variability in different 
shades of brownish, reddish, and yellowish orange. Figs. 8 and 
9 are only slightly aberrative in other details, but in fig. 10 the 
whole facies is changed. 
The width of these marginal markings, as I measured them 
across the fourth median lunule in different specimens, varied 
from 2°5 mm. in ab. pygmea, Ruhl, measuring 18 mm. along 
costa of each fore wing, to a little over 4 mm. in a giant form 
with the fore wings each measuring 28°5 mm. from base to tip. 
In medium-sized specimens the margin seems to be most often 
just under 4 mm. broad—almost as broad therefore as in the 
largest forms. 
All the margins here figured vary only very slightly in width, 
despite the differences not only in the shape and size of the 
lunules, but also in the size of the whole wings. In fig. 3 the 
large lunules narrow the outer border (which together with the 
costal lunules is typical in fig. 1), while in fig. 8 the border 
is widened and disintegrated, the original brownish suffusion 
becoming plainly visible, which (also in the other figures) links 
